Regional
European Ministers Pinpoint Academic Mobility as Top Priority
Many challenges to the mobility of staff and students still exist, education ministers from the 46 countries involved in the Bologna Process [1] – designed to harmonize Europe’s higher education systems – have stressed. Obstacles to mobility include insufficient financial incentives and current immigration procedures, according to the 2007 Bologna Process communiqué, drawn up at the bi-annual Bologna ministerial summit, which was held toward the end of May in London. Alan Johnson, Britain’s Education Secretary, told the summit that obstacles must be removed to allow all students the opportunity to study abroad. He highlighted the need to improve employability as another key priority identified in the communiqué.
Also noteworthy was the emphasis placed on the “external dimensions” of the Bologna Process, and the desire for the launch of a formal strategy highlighting ‘The European higher education area in a global setting’ and focusing on improving information on and promoting the attractiveness and competitiveness of the European Higher Education Area, strengthening external partnerships, improving recognition, and strengthening policy dialog.
– The full communiqué is available at www.dfes.gov.uk/bologna [2]
May 18, 2007
France
Despite Delay, Sarkozy Expected to Introduce Controversial Education Bill Soon
French higher education was to be an early – and controversial — target for the reform agenda of the new French president, Nicolas Sarkozy; however, fearing student backlash, the official publication of the bill was postponed in late June, reports the Associated Press. The proposed higher education bill would give French universities the authority to opt out of the national system, which sets budgetary and fundraising restrictions, mandates tuition and appoints professors. The universities would then have more autonomy to recruit students, hire professors and look for additional funding, whether in the form of donations or tuition.
In addition, he promises to inject billions of euros into improving standards in higher education, a move he says will add 50 percent to universities’ operating budgets over the next five years. A proposed new monitoring agency would oversee standards.
Student activists and others are deriding the plans as an “Americanization” of French higher education. Campaign talk of making admission to universities more selective than the current open admissions policy for high school baccalaureate holders has caused concern for many students. With victory and a majority for Sarkozy’s center-right coalition government in the National Assembly elections in June, introduction of the legislation in late June was widely expected. However, after meeting with university officials and student groups, Sarkozy announced a surprise postponement of the bill, but only for a week. It is still widely expected that the bill will be introduced in July.
– Associated Press [3]
May 24 & June 26, 2007
Germany
2006: Record Year for German Academic Mobility
More students and faculty than ever before – 55,000 in total – took part in Germany’s official academic exchange programs last year. Approximately 61 percent of exchanges involved foreigners studying or researching at universities or institutes in Germany, according to the annual report of the German Academic Exchange Service [4] (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst – DAAD). In the last two decades, the number of foreigners studying in Germany under DAAD exchange programs grew by 70 percent to around 200,000.
– DAAD [4]
May 2007
Greece
Private Universities Exist in Regulatory Limbo
According to Article 16 of the Greek Constitution, tertiary education is to be provided free of charge in the public domain, and if recent opposition to the proposed amendments to Article 16 is anything to go by, the situation will remain that way for the foreseeable future. However, private universities do exist in Greece and many have highly respectable international affiliations and accreditation statuses, yet they are shunned as second rate by a majority of Greeks, despite a public university system that many commentators feel fails to meet the needs of employers and fails to provide adequate places to meet student demand.
Many of the private institutions that do exist, such as the American College of Thessaloniki (ACT) [5], the American College of Greece [6] (or Deree), and Perrotis College [7] are accredited by well-respected organizations that exist beyond Greek borders. Deree and ACT are fully accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges [8] (NEASC), regarded as the most demanding of the six regional American accrediting agencies and the accrediting body used by Harvard [9], Yale [10] and MIT [11]. And, from September, Perrotis will be welcoming its first intake of bachelor of science students, having recently replaced its two-year associate degree program with a three-year degree issued through the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC) [12] . Furthermore, according to the Hellenic Colleges’ Association, 16 British and one French university offer their programs through private Greek institutions based on franchising agreements.
Officially, such institutions are entitled to function as non-profit making, foreign-registered “centers for liberal studies” that are regulated by the development ministry. In reality, however, they only exist because the institutions from which they spawned – Anatolia College, Pierce College and The American Farm School’s secondary school – were granted licenses by the education ministry to issue secondary education diplomas.
It is an environment that makes survival hard for such institutions. Some establishments, like the University of La Verne, Athens, have failed to survive. Another, the Athens branch [13] of the University of Indianapolis, has had its academic standards and entry requirements publicly questioned. Because the degrees granted by these institutions do not give access to further studies at public institutions, they are limited in the programs they offer. Pre-medical and pre-law degrees, for example, are of no use because graduates will not get into medical or law school, so they mainly offer liberal arts, business, and information technology degrees – areas in which Greek universities have traditionally been weak.
– Athens News [14]
May 25, 2007
Italy
UAE Launches Italian Scholarship
The Emirates Foundation has launched a postgraduate scholarship program for students in the United Arab Emirates to attend one of three Italian universities. The participating institutions are the University of Bocconi [15] in Milan, the Polytechnic of Milan [16] and the Luiss International University for Social Studies [17] in Rome.
– AMEInfo [18]
June 11, 2007
Montenegro
Montenegro Formerly Welcomed as Bologna Signatory
The small Balkan nation of Montenegro, which formerly split from Serbia in June 2006, was welcomed as an official member of the European educational reform initiative, or Bologna Process [1], at the London summit of education ministers in May. With the addition of Montenegro, 46 countries are now signatory to the Bologna Accords.
– London Communique [2]
May 18, 2007
Poland
Polish Students Traveling Abroad in Increasing Numbers
The number of Poles studying at colleges and universities abroad has doubled over the last four years and now exceeds 26,000 annually. Almost half, or 12,000 students, study in Germany because of its proximity and easy access to universities. The United Kingdom attracts almost 5,000 students annually, and Australia attracts approximately 2,000 students.
– AEI Australia [19]
May 30, 2007
Sweden
Quality Assurance Agency: 1 in 10 Tertiary Programs not Degree-Worthy
Eleven percent of tertiary-level programs are of such poor quality that their right to issue qualification has been questioned in a report published in May by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education [20]. The survey, which took six years to compile and studied some 1,700 higher education programs, found that 40 percent of general nursing programs and 33 percent of specialist nursing programs did not meet required standards. Many teacher-training programs also were found to not be of a sufficiently high standard.
The authors of the report conclude that education standards in Sweden are generally of a high standard; however, they say institutions of higher education have not been adequately funded to meet growing demand over the last 15 years.
– Radio Sweden [21]
May 20, 2007
United Kingdom
Underqualified Overseas Students Granted Places at Cash-Strapped Universities
The Sunday Times reports that a number of top-ranking, yet cash-poor, British universities are bending their admissions rules to admit international students who, unlike their British peers, pay the full $US50,000 in tuition fees for an arts degrees.
Reporters from the British newspaper, who were posing as guardians for a 17-year-old Chinese student studying A-levels at a top private boarding school in England, solicited responses from admissions counselors for different undergraduate courses at the universities of Edinburgh [22], Manchester [23] and Sheffield [24]. The counselors reportedly said they would be prepared to accept an international applicant who had failed to achieve the normal A-level requirements for their program.
Facing budget shortfalls, universities in the UK have seemingly turned to international students as a means of paying the bills. One high-profile example is Oxford University [25]’s recent decision to reduce its intake of home and European Union students from 11,000 to 10,000, while increasing overseas numbers from 8 percent to 15 percent by 2010. University officials insist that the move is not financially based, rather a means of improving student quality.
Universities earn far less from UK and European students even with government grants and fees of $17,000 for a three-year degree. International students generate more than $US4 billion a year in fees for higher education, but universities state publicly that foreign students have to be as good as other potential undergraduates. Over the past 15 years undergraduate numbers have more than doubled while government funding per student has fallen by 37 percent.
– The Sunday Times [26]
May 13, 2007